Hasta La Ideas

It appears that the masses have gotten their way, so far as “masses” refers to “people in London.” As we wrote about back at the start of the month, several grassroots movements had sprung up following the closure of the Met‘s record-setting Alexander McQueen exhibition, calling for it to start touring. At that time, there were rumors that it might actually happen, with a first stop possibly at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Now it appears that’s inching closer to reality. The Art Newspaper reports that the V&A is in talks with McQueen’s company (owned by Gucci), with new director of the museum, Martin Roth, mightily pushing to try and make it happen. Here’s a bit:

All options are being explored, even the idea of putting it on at another location if space is unavailable in South Kensington. On Roth’s first day at work in September he began contacting the key players. Although nothing has yet been arranged, he is determined to press ahead.

However, Gucci has told the paper that they’ve been in talks with several organizations in London about a show, but nothing has been decided of yet. Still, that comment seems to indicate that the move to the UK is more than likely imminent, at the V&A or otherwise. We’d imagine that every museum in London must at least be thinking about trying to land it, considering what a smash success it was in New York, and McQueen being a native of the city.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Renowned Seattle and NYC brands team up for a classic waxed parka just in time for fall

It’s hard to know which of the deluge of fall collaborations are worth your time and attention, but when DQM is involved we tend to take notice. Coming just two weeks after the collaborative Vans DQM General store opened, New York City’s heralded streetwear purveyor has teamed up for the second time with Crescent Down Works to release a waxed parka just in time for colder temperatures.

Made in Pacific Northwest, the waxed cotton jacket is built to withstand the rain no matter where it’s falling. Leather reinforced buttons and custom DQM labeling accent the classically subdued design. Available in a black with an orange liner and in tan with navy, the parka runs $430. It sells exclusively at Vans DQM General in NYC and, starting this Monday 3 October 2011, online in limited numbers as well.

Our top-down road test in one of the best-looking, best-performing cars available

When Mercedes introduced the SLS in 2009, the Gullwing coupe dropped jaws and turned heads with its retro inspiration and powerful guts. The move also firmly staked its claim toward the future expression of the brand. Designed at the same time but only now available, the SLS Roadster brings the thrill of a convertible to this already near-perfect driver’s car—along with a few new additions.

We had a chance to check the new model out first-hand when Mercedes invited us to France’s sunny Côte d’Azur to spend a day-and-a-half in the supercar (which I shared with good friend Jean Aw from
Notcot). Driving from Monaco into Italy, up to Col du Brouis and back down to St. Jean Cap-Ferrat made for an idyllic itinerary to experience driving with the top down at its most chic.

What’s so impressive about the car is everything. Respectful of its heritage in the coveted 1950s 300 SL Roadster, the SLS also firmly represents all that Mercedes-Benz has to offer. It incorporates some of the most sophisticated engineering and technology available, yet is both easy and an absolute pleasure to drive. The interior perfectly balances sport, luxury and comfort. Both sinner and saint, while many other cars and supercars achieve many of the same levels and worthy praise, few bring it together so seamlessly and perfectly. (Though the Ferrari FF comes to mind).

The Roadster shares all of the same technology and equipment as the Coupe. Its lightweight aluminum construction, seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission and AMG 6.3 liter 571-horsepower V8 engine all makes for the same 0-60 time of 3.6 seconds. The more rigid body is only 60 pounds heavier than the Gullwing, impressively retaining the same performance (and most of its trunk space).

New options to the Roadster are a much welcomed AMG Ride Control and a very impressive set of Internet-enabled performance functions called AMG Performance Media, which reside in a tab of the car’s on-board computer system. A kick-ass Bang & Olufson sound system is also available, and includes a 250 watt subwoofer. Another feature I liked (though didn’t need to try) is the Airscarf neck vent, which blows hot air to keep you warm for off-season, top-down driving (heated seats are also available).

Ride Control lets you select from three preset suspension and transmission variations: Comfort, Sport (stiffer, higher performance ride) and Sport+, even more firm and tuned for the highest-performance conditions. This is really helpful for traveling most comfortably from urban traffic to the countryside, freeways or track. It also adjusts the sound of the engine and exhaust from a purr to one of the best sounding roars I’ve heard—the consensus among other journalists there as well.

Want to see how many Gs you’re pulling on the track? The Performance Media option, an Android-based mobile platform, provides high-speed Internet access (when the car isn’t moving). Multiple racing-inspired screens show real-time temperatures, performance, tire pressures, lateral and linear acceleration and a host of track-related functions. This section is seamlessly integrated into the rest of the car’s system, which itself is well-designed and intuitive to use. As you’d expect, the car is highly customizable, including custom paint colors.

Rumored to start around $200,000 and available at Mercedes dealerships, this beauty may be unattainable for most of us, but its exceptional design is something we can all enjoy.

Over the next months we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

Designer: Herman Miller Healthcare & Continuum Design Team
Location: West Newton, MA, USA
Category: Interiors / Exhibitions
Award: Notable

Herman Miller Compass System

Compass is a modular system of interchangeable components used to create applications for patient rooms, caregiver work areas and other clinical spaces. Compass improves caregiver efficiency, supports new and changing technologies, improves the patient and family experience and offers surfaces and construction that have been optimized for the healthcare environment.

The goal for hospitals is obvious—to help people get better. However, hospitals employ many stakeholders, and the goals of these stakeholders on a moment-by-moment basis are not always aligned. This can create an unsettling environment for the patient and impede the patient’s road to recovery. Our research focused on the patient and how to heal them, but we also focused on understanding the needs of physicians, nurses, custodial staff, patients’ families, hospital administrators and architects so that we could design a system that would help them all achieve their shared goal – better patient care. By understanding the needs of all the stakeholders in the hospital care ecosystem, we were able to understand how their relationships can conflict with each other and how we could design a system to overcome these conflicts.

Core77: What’s the latest news or development with your project?

Compass continues to be a huge success and Continuum and Herman Miller are planning to continuously add new capabilities, applications and features. The First installation of Compass is complete in Virginia Mason Hospital.

What is one quick anecdote about your project?

The Eureka moment in the development of Compass was the realization that no matter how hard we tried we could not design the ideal patient room! We needed to design for constant change. The fact is that there are new hospitals being built and old hospitals being renovated constantly. That the day a hospital opens it needs to change. This is because of changing technologies, changing demographics, and changing approaches to delivering health care.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

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